Cloth of Time Opens in Halifax at Mary E Black Gallery, Halifax Nova Scotia July 12 2018

Not To Know But To Go On, stitched textile Judy Martin hangs from the ceiling in centre of gallery space.
 Cloud of Time, stitched textile by Judy Martin hangs from the ceiling in the window of the gallery. 
The Sun, The Moon, And Also The Stars by Judy Martin are also suspended and hang in front of the left wall in above photo

I love to stitch by hand.
I need to do it every day, or I do not feel settled.
I stitch for an hour or two every  morning before breakfast as a way of preparing my inner self for the rest of the day.
I schedule appointments for the afternoon so that they do not interrupt this quiet time with my self.

Daily Scratchings by Penny Berens hangs on right wall in above photo

I think a lot about love and things spiritual.
The tactility of those marks made with thread help me to communicate my ideas.
The gentle bumps of thread in cloth beg to be touched, even when we are in an art gallery where touching is not allowed, yet we still know how pleasurable the simple repeated stitches will feel under our caressing fingers.

Penny Berens and Judy Martin at the opening of Cloth of Time, July 12 2018

Touch has been called the mother of the senses,
because it is able to reach each of us on a more emotional level than the sense of sight.

Stone Pathways (left wall) and Cris Cross (right wall) both by Penny Berens

The largest piece in the exhibition, Not To Know But To Go On, addresses mortality and the relentless rhythm of time.  Fabrics that I've saved for years were couched onto artist's canvas with an entire skein of cotton embroidery floss each day, for three years.
Inspired by the Finnish rugs of my heritage and the writing of Agnes Martin, this piece makes the whirl of time visible.

Cloud of Time  by Judy Martin encourages light to shine through, like a cloud  

The large wall piece, Cloud of Time,  although created with the same techniques as the sculpture, has colours that are limited to that of a cloud filled sky and is not a journal, but a document of one year of time.

The Sun, The Moon, And Also The Stars, three hand stitched drawings on felt by Judy martin

The Sun, The Moon, And Also The Stars, are three smaller wall pieces that evolved through the practice of creating small daily collages.  Plant dyed velvet and other fabrics were stitched into individual designs on backings of wool felt.  These were then stitched together.  When I ran out of felt, I turned the pieces over and drew onto them with black thread stitched marks.

Susan Charles, director-durator of the Mary E Black gallery spoke at the opening reception

I think that the main reason I make things with cloth and thread is that the process heals me.
Creating something that was not here before gives me a sense of well-being.

Also, I consider my stitched pieces to be poems as much as they are drawings or sculptures, but I'll talk about that another time.
Judy Martin 2018

The exhibition continues until August 26, 2018
Mary E Black Gallery, Halifax Nova Scotia